San Francisco — Back in the autumn of 2010, Google unveiled its free URL shortening service to the world, using the goo.gl domain address. But yesterday afternoon, the search engine behemoth took a somewhat arcane but important step — has finally fully released its URL shortening service, Goo.gl, for third-party use, enabling API access and detailing how developers can add support for the service into their own applications.
“With this API, developers would be able to programmatically access all of the fast, sleek goo.gl goodness that we currently provide via the web interface,”the company says in a blog post.
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According to the blog post, the API can be accessed on the company’s Google Code Labs site, with documentation for version 1 available at the dedicated Google URL Shortener API (Labs) page, including step-by-step instructions. “You could apply these features for a wide variety of applications, enabling behaviors ranging from auto-shortening within Twitter or Google Buzz clients to running regular jobs that monitor your usage statistics and traffic patterns.”
Nevertheless, the URL shortening market is somewhat super-saturated at the moment, Google’s offering is one of the better ones: tying in to the company’s existing spam and malware filters to keep out the dross, the service offers one of the fastest lookup engines around — assisted by the presence of Google servers across the world, rather than the more US-centric approach of other services.
Like the URL shortener, the new API is reportedly effortless and empowers developers with the ability to use goo.gl to shorten or expand their URLs and to retrieve URL history and analytics. Google’s Ben D’Angelo said in a blog post announcing the API that: “You can shorten and expand URLs using the API, as well as retrieve your history and analytics.”Individuals can still use the service at http://goo.gl.
Google rolled out the service to provide what it sees as faster, more reliable, and more secure url shortening. And the company says it is still polishing tools designed to eliminate un-kosher content. “We are continuing to work on several usability improvements and to make our auto-detection of spammy or malicious content even more robust,”the post reads.
While the launch of the goo.gl API may not seem like the most exciting initiative to come out of Google, URL shorteners are actually becoming a very promising business. So if Bit.ly, TinyURL, or any other of the growing horde of URL shorteners do not cut it for you, Google stands ready with its fast, reliable, and now programmable one.
And, since the Google API offers integration with other Google products, spam protection and speed, the platform is likely to be a desirable alternative for developers seeking tools to speed up their apps. Besides, the benefit for Google is obvious: by offering free and open access to its URL shortening service via the new API, it encourages programmers to add support into their apps — and as the programmers capture analytics, so too does Google. Increased traffic means increased analytics, and increased analytics helps feed the company’s primary business: advertising.
Bundled with complete instructions for accessing the Goo.gl service via the API — which, conveniently, uses simple HTTP methods and thus works from desktop, mobile, or web apps without prejudice — is available on the official Google URL Shortener API page.